1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic camera. More specifically, the present invention relates to an electronic camera that subjects an image signal output from an image sensor to a clamp process.
2. Description of the Prior Art
One example of this kind of conventional apparatus is disclosed in patent document 1 (Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2003-259224). In accordance with this conventional art, two adjacent imaging areas are formed on an imaging surface, and a surveillance area is assigned to those two imaging areas in such a manner as to straddle a boundary line between them. A difference in level between two image signals generated at the two imaging areas is determined with attention given to the surveillance area to determine. Each of the two image signals is provided with some gain so as to dissolve the level difference. This makes less visible a difference of grade in a synthetic image based on the two image signals.
However, the two image signals derived from the imaging elements are output from different paths, which results in a discrepancy between levels of noises superimposed on the image signals in their paths. In the conventional art, no consideration is given to such a discrepancy in noise level and thus there is a limit to obtaining an improvement in quality of synthetic image.